Living in Harmony

Credit Line: Gift of Ian Holliday 2023, Collection of SMU

Ba Khine uses repeating horizontal lines and soft calming colours to illustrate the bucolic village life. In this peaceful scene, people are traveling in bullock carts to the Ananda Pagoda festival in Bagan, whose plains are dotted with ancient temples, pagodas and monasteries.

Before becoming a self-taught painter, Ba Khine (b. 1960, Meikthila, Mandalay Region, Myanmar) worked as a photographer for the tourist trade. He has been a full-time artist since 1996, and has exhibited overseas since 2006. He is one of five artists working collectively at Studio Square Gallery in Yangon.

The SMU Art Collection has over 70 paintings from Myanmar donated by Ian Holliday. A specialist in Burmese politics, Holliday assembled the Thukhuma Collection which comprises of Burmese paintings largely dating from the transitional decade of the 2010s, presenting multiple artistic perspectives on a society in reform. On display at School of Social Sciences and Li Ka Shing Library, the gifted paintings depict the people, culture and land, from the streets of Yangon and rural peripheries to political icons and indigenous deities.